Tantalum-alloy pen



Feb. 5, 1929. 1301,299

E. W. ENGLE El AL TANTALUM ALLOY PEN Filed May 27, 1927 TANTAL UM T'UNGsrazv 774N77 L UM TUNG'STEN fiy: MM, @Wwm mama Feb. 5, 1929.

UNITED STATES-PATENT orrlca.

EDGAR W. ENGLE, OF LAKE FOREST, AND MINER I. AUSTIN, OF WAUKEGAN,ILLINOIS,

ABBIGNOBS 'IO IANS'IEEL PRODUCTS COMPANY, INC.,- 01" NORTH CHICAGO,ILLI- N018, A CORPORATION 01 NEW YORK. i

'IANTALUM-ALLOY PEN.

Application filed lay 2'! 1927. Serial No. 184,563.

This invention relates to ens and instruments adapted for writing,rawing and the like. More particularly our invention relates to an alloyof tantalum and a metal of 5 the chromium group. We have found that thisalloy is especially suitable for this purpose in that the alloy,hereafter defined, retains the hardness, toughness and non-corrosiveproperties of tantalum, with the in- 1 creased elasticity, flexibilityand resiliency imparted to the tantalum by the addition of the elementof the chromium group which'is preferably tungsten.

Tantalum has been suggested as a suitable metal for making pens, drawinginstruments and the like, and considerable experimentat-(iion andcommercial use has been made of this 1 ea.

To render the tantalum harder, it has been 90 treated with iron, oxygen,hydrogen, silicon, boron, aluminum, titanium, tin, carbon, etc., butnone of the proposed treatments has been successful as is evidenced bythe fact that tantalum pens are not employed extensively or manufacturedon a commercial scale. The

hardening substances heretofore used have p had a tendency to make themetal so brittle that it could not be successfully worked, and

the permissible quantities of these added ele- 80 ments had to becarefully chosen and the additions regulated to a very fine degree.

The object of this invention is to provide a tantalum-alloy pen whichwill combine the non-corrosive properties, the hardness and $8 toughnessof tantalum with pronounced elasticity, flexibility and resiliency bythe addition of a metal of the chromium group.

. A further object of the invention i's-to provide a tantalum-tungstenpen with a hard- 40 ened tip.

Other objects will be apparent as the description of our inventionproceeds. r

In the accompanyin drawings which represent preferred embo%iments of ourinven- 5 tion,

cially alloys in which the tungsten content exceeded two or threepercent. B an extensive research on this subjecta met od for reparingsuch an alloy has been develope intimatel mixing powdered tungsten withpowdere tantalum, compressing the powder into a rod and sintering thisrod by an electric current in a substantial vacuum. This rocess,however, forms no part of the present invention, and further descrlptionof it is A pen may be pre ared, as shown in Fig. 1,

with the shank 10, t e nib'portion 11 and the olnt 12 all of thetantalum-tungsten alloy.

Although tantalum is not nearly so expen sive as gold, it costs morethan steel, and our invention may be applied to a modification, asillustrated in Fig. 2, where a shank 14 is of'steel and is welded to thetantalum-tungsten nib 15 referably by electrical resistance or spot weling. 7

In the same way the pen may be pointed with iridium, iridosmium or otherti 16 by spot welding said tip to the point of t e 'Another method ofproviding a hardene tip is to merely heat the tip of the pen to atemperature above a dull red in the presence of air, hydro en .or othersuitable gas. The alloy has the pro erty of tantalum whereby thistreatment ma es the tip extremely hard,

. and ifcare is used, the tip may thus be hard Fig. 1 represents aconventional pen made entirely of our tantalum-tungsten alloy, and

Fig. 2 represents an embodiment wherein the shank may 50 thetantalum-tungsten alloy, and the point of iridosmium.

Heretofore alloys of tantalumand tungbe of-steel, the nib portion ofened without aflecting the physical properties of the nib portion. Amore practical and preferred method of hardening the point would be todip the point in white hot NaCO, treat theheated tip with NaGN, orcarbonize the .tip in some other conventional method.

sten have been very diflicult to obtain-, -espe' The pen prepared byusing this alloy has a high degree of springiness and hardness, is oneof the most resistant known to the corrosive action of chemicals and theelements,

may be manufactured as cheaply as an ordinary steel pen and will'beequall as service able and Satisfactory as the gol now used on fountainpens.

While We have described particular alloys,

it is understood that the percentages may be varied and additionalsubstances-added to the alloy without departing from the spirit of ourinvention. We are not limited to the a nib comprising about 90% tantaluman 10% tungsten.

2. A pen having a nib comprising about ninety per cent tantalum andtenper cent 20 tungsten and having a hardened point.

In witness whereof, we hereunto subscribe our names this 20th day ofMay, 1927 EDGAR W. ENGLE.

" MINER M. AUSTIN.

